Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries: Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.12

Middle English commentary on the Gospel of Matthew

Introduction: There existed in late medieval England a broad and varied culture of the use of the vernacular for the study of the Bible, beyond that associated with the Oxford theologian John Wycliffe, his followers or the Lollard movement. This manuscript illustrates one strand of that culture, being one of only two surviving copies of a Middle English commentary on the Gospel of Matthew, and the only copy to contain the text of the prologue. The other copy is found in London, British Library, Egerton MS 842, ff. 1r-244v , though there the text is in a different, and thought to be original, order. Similar commentaries on the Gospels of Mark and Luke are preserved in Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 32 . It had previously been thought that the three were related, even the work of a single author, but this has since been questioned. A rubric at the opening of this manuscript points to the northerly origins of the translated commentary on Matthew: 'A man of the north country drew (i.e. translated) this in to English' (spelling modernised). Linguistic analysis of this manuscript has localised the dialect to Nottinghamshire, and that of the Egerton and Corpus manuscripts to the same region. Although this does not mean that these manuscripts originated in that specific location, nevertheless it points to a shared tradition of vernacular Biblical exegesis in the north, distinct both geographically as well as intellectually from that taking place in Oxford under Wycliffe's aegis. This is reflected in the presentation of the text in these three manuscripts. In Wycliffite Glossed Gospels, passages of Bible text (translated into English) were written in a larger script, and alternated with passages of commentary (also in English) written in a smaller script. By contrast, the set of manuscripts to which MS Ii.2.12 belongs follow the pattern set by another northern biblical translation, the English Psalter of Richard Rolle : a quotation from the Latin Vulgate, distinguished by the use of larger or more formal or rubricated script (or a combination thereof), is followed closely by an English translation, and then the commentary. (For comparable examples of the presentation of Rolle's text, see: Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Tanner 16, f. 2v and Oxford, Bodleian Library, MS. Bodl. 953, p. 3). Unlike Rolle's text, however, the commentaries on Matthew and Mark (and, to a much lesser extent, Luke) include marginal notes that identify the sources of their interpretations. The system is also different to that found in the Wycliffite Glossed Gospels, in which references were embedded in the columns of text. On the subject of sources, close comparative study of this small family of vernacular commentaries reveals important differences between them. Whereas the commentaries on Mark and Luke in Corpus MS 32 drew on the Glossa ordinaria, the commentary on Matthew drew on the Catena aurea of Thomas Aquinas . Notably, this is the same source used by the Wycliffite Glossed Gospels, but of which the compilers made very different uses, the Matthew commentator melding them into a continuous text rather than a series of discontinuous glosses, and adopting a freer style of translation. Furthermore, the Matthew commentator drew from a wider variety of sources than did the Mark and Luke commentator, not all of them commentaries, and produced a much longer text as a consequence. It is likely, then, that the commentary found in this manuscript and Egerton 832 was the product of an author or team of authors working independently to the person or persons responsible for the commentary in Corpus MS 32, albeit with a shared aim of bringing scholastic exegesis to new audiences through the use of the vernacular. (For further details of the above, and additional analysis of these commentaries, see: Kraebel (2014)). Dr James Freeman| Medieval Manuscripts Specialist| Cambridge University Library

Language(s): Middle English [LALME:'MS in one hand...Analysis from fff. 92v-97v, 112r-116r. LP 164. Grid 472 360. Nottinghamshire']

1. 4r-167v

Middle English commentary on Matthew

Language(s): Middle English

Rubric: 4r: A man of þe north cuntre drogh þis in to Englisch

Filiation: One other surviving copy known: London, British Library, Egerton MS 842, ff. 1r-244v . Similar commentaries on Mark and Luke found in: Cambridge, Corpus Christi College, MS 32, ff. 1r-154v .

Not among the manuscripts listed by Conrad Lindberg, 'The manuscripts and versions of the Wycliffite Bible', Studia Neophilologica 42 (1970), 333-347.

2. 4r

Translator's preface

Incipit: 4r: Here begynnes þe exposicyone of seynt Mathew . efter þe chapytres þat bene sette in þe bibil

Explicit: 4r: with me þurgh doyng of þat þat is wrytyn in þis bok may com to gider to þat blisse þat never shall ende Amen.

Kraebel (2014), pp. 109-10

3. 4r-8r

Prologue

Incipit: 4r: Sethyn efter þe ascensyon of crist þe holy gost enspyred þe hertes of þe apostels and sent þem and hertyd þem to prech

Explicit: 8r: þat broght us oute of paradyse ; þis bryngs us in to paradyse

Final rubric: 8r: Here endys þe prologe

Kraebel (2014), pp. 110-20

4. 8r-167v

Text

Incipit: 8r: Liber generacionis Ihesu christi

Incipit: 8r: þat is þis þe boke of þe generacyon of ihesu crist. Of is þis generacyon, not of Adam losand us, bot of ihesu crist safand us

Explicit: 167v: as luke seys þat tellys þat þe angels seid to þe women where to seeke ȝe þe yfande||

Unedited.

Physical Description

Secundo Folio: delyuerand all' hys (5r)

Form: codex

Support: Parchment (HFFH)

Extent: Codex: ii + 148 + ii leaves. 320 × 225 mm.

Foliation:

Mid-20th-century foliation:

[i-ii] + 4-40, 49-136, 145-167 + [iii-iv]

Numbering in pencil in the upper right-hand corner of the rectos, by H.L. Pink .

Folio numbers 1-3, 41-48, 137-144 and 168 assigned to leaves no longer present in the volume (as per historic foliation practice at Cambridge University Library).

Foliation: Folio numbers from a previous sequence written in pencil in the lower right-hand corner of the rectos. Numbering is typically at intervals of ten leaves.

Collation

The manuscript in its current form comprises 18 quires of eight leaves, plus one imperfect quire at the beginning and one at the end. Interruption to the text and the sequence of leaf signatures indicates that a whole quire of eight leaves is missing between Quires 5 and 6 (signature 'f'), and another between Quires 16 and 17 (signature 's').

Quire 1^8-3 (a) (ff. 4-8: 1st-3rd leaves ?excised/?missing, before f. 4r)
Quires 2-19⁸ (b-e, g-r, t-v) (ff. 9-160)
Quire 20^8-1 (x) (ff. 161-167: 8th leaf, after f. 167, missing)

Occasional leaf signatures, in the typical late medieval alphanumeric form, with numbers written in Arabic or Roman numerals (i.e. b 1, b 2, b 3, b 4, etc).

Quire signatures in the form of lower case letters, added an early modern hand to the recto of the first leaf of each quire, presumably when the manuscript was rebound. These signatures do not take into account the loss of quires (see Collation) and so fall out of step with the earlier, medieval leaf signatures.

Catchwords, but frequently trimmed.

Layout

240-245 × 145-160 mm. Ruled in leadpoint, frame only, in two columns, 47-52 lines, written below top line. No pricking marks visible.

Hand(s)

Written in anglicana. According to McIntosh (1986), 'MS in one hand...Analysis from fff. 92v-97v, 112r-116r. LP 164. Grid 472 360. Notts'.

Biblical quotations in Latin are written in textura quadrata.

Decoration

One- to two-line plain initials, in red.

Additions

Folio [iii] recto: 'Two leaves here missing. Nov. 1847, J.P.': i.e. Joseph Power (1798-1868) , University Librarian 1828-64.

Notes on the loss of leaves at various points in the volume (ff. 4r, 136v and f. 167v) by Henry Bradshaw , University Librarian 1867-1886.

Notes on the loss of leaves at various points in the volume (ff. 4r, 49r, 145r and 167v) by H.L. Pink . Collation formula also added by Pink to the rear pastedown.

Note of the contents added by an unidentified 18th-century hand (front pastedown).

Binding

Brown calf-skin, with blind-tooling comprising triple lines running in parallel with the edge of the boards, probably 17th century.

Note by H.L. Pink on front pastedown: 'Repaired by Douglas Cockerell and Son , Grantchester, May, 1966'. Rebacked with brown Morocco, with gold-tooled title and classmark on the spine.

History

Origin: England. ; First half of the 15th century.

Provenance and Acquisition

'Matth. Saunders': ownership inscription on f. 4r. Probably the Matthew Saunders (d. 1622) recorded as being admitted as fellow-commoner of Gonville and Caius College on 5 May 1593; member of Middle Temple, 1594; knighted, 1617; died 1622 (see Venn:SNDS593M). In addition to the present manuscript, Saunders also owned Cambridge, University Library, MS Ff.6.20 and MS Ff.6.45-49, both 13th-century copies of the Bible, and both of which later passed into the hands of Richard Holdsworth. See Oates (1986), p. 344.

One of the manuscripts of Richard Holdsworth , Master of Emmanuel College (1590-1649).

Acquired by the University Library in July 1664: no. 21 in the inventory of Holdsworth's manuscripts compiled by William Crowe (MS Ff.4.27 / Dd.8.45).

Additional Information

Availability

Entry to read in the Library is permitted only on presentation of a valid reader's card. For information on eligibility and admissions procedures, see Joining the Library). For further enquiries, and to confirm the availability of the manuscript, please contact the Special Collections Reading Room.

Bibliography

The Holy Bible containing the Old and New Testaments, with the Apocryphal books, in the earliest English versions made from the Latin Vulgate by John Wycliffe and his followers, (Oxford, 1, University Press, 1850)

A fourteenth century English Biblical Version, Paues, A.C. (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1904)

The Pauline Epistles: contained in Manuscript Parker 32, Corpus Christi College, Cambridge Early English Text Society Original Series, (London, Kegan Paul, 1916)

A manual of the writings in Middle English, 1050-1500, (New Haven, Connecticut Academy of Arts and Sciences, 1967)

Wycliffite prose Middle English prose: a critical guide to major authors and genres, Hudson, Anne (New Brunswick, N.J., 249-270, Rutgers University Press, 1986)

A linguistic atlas of late mediaeval English, McIntosh, AngusSamuels, M.L.Benskin, Michael (Aberdeen, Aberdeen University Press, 1986)

Cambridge University Library: a history, Oates, J.C.T. (Cambridge, 1: From the beginnings to the Copyright Act of Queen Anne, Cambridge University Press, 1986)

The premature reformation: Wycliffite texts and Lollard history, Hudson, Anne (Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1988)

Manuscripts in the University Library, Cambridge (Dd-Oo) Index of Middle English prose, Connolly, Margaret (Woodbridge, D.S. Brewer, 2009)

The illustrations of the Corpus Christi College MS 32: "Þe Glose in Englisshe Tunge" Image, Text and Church, 1380-1600: Essays for Margaret Aston Papers in Mediaeval Studies, Nichols, Ann Eljenholm (Toronto, 37-67, Pontifical Institute of Mediaeval Studies, 2009)

Middle English gospel glosses and the translation of exegetical authority Traditio, Kraebel, A.B. (69, 87-123, 2014, https://www.jstor.org/stable/24712428)

Digital Images

Cambridge Digital Library

Abbreviations

View list of abbreviations and editorial conventions.

Medieval Manuscripts in Cambridge Libraries

Cambridge, University Library, MS Ii.2.12

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